Salah Abdeslam, convicted of the attacks of November 13 and Brussels, was taken from his cell in Belgium and sent back to France

Salah Abdeslam, definitively convicted for the attacks of November 13 and Brussels, was taken from his cell in Belgium and sent back to France, his lawyer, Delphine Paci, announced to AFP on Wednesday February 7. His transfer was suspended in October by the Belgian courts.

The jihadist must serve his irreducible life sentence in France for the attacks of November 13, 2015. “They came to pick him up this morning from his cell at 9 a.m. and he left for France”said Delphine Paci. “This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law”, affirmed the lawyer, according to whom “there was clearly an agreement between the Belgian State and the French State to violate a court decision”.

Since his arrest in March 2016, Salah Abdeslam has spent most of his detention in France. In July 2022, after the end of the trial in Paris for November 13, he was the subject of a “temporary surrender” to Belgium, while the trial of the Brussels attacks was carried out. Although of French nationality, Salah Abdeslam expressed his desire to serve his sentence in Belgium where he grew up and has all his family ties.